So this is the time of year that 8th grade parents begin to really labor over the decision of where to have their child complete high school. Many parents, who have homeschooled through 8th grade feel that only the public schools can adequately prepare their children for high school. Friends and family tend to put pressure on to forget homeschooling and put the child in a place where they are guaranteed to get a good education. While public school wasn’t good enough for their child in the elementary or middle school years, it is suddenly the best or only option for high school.Each year, Christiana sees countless families wrestle with this decision. And, admittedly, it is a hard decision. Over the next several months, Christiana blog writers will tackle this tough decision, trying to offer pros and cons to homeschooling, private schooling and public schooling. We hope to inform parents, offer advice from those who have gone with each of these options and teachers in both the public and homeschool circles will weigh in on this topic.

This is definitely not a decision to enter into lightly. So, my first piece of advice to moms in the middle school years would be to begin to pray that God would be clear and open doors for you in this decision. Also, I would encourage you to have your children pray in this same way. Many children also assume they should go to public high school, or feel that they are ‘missing something.’ However, before they begin to ‘weigh in’ on this decision, ask them to pray daily for several months. As you begin to bathe this decision in prayer, consider the following things.High School counts! So, if you are going to homeschool in high school, you must be committed to educating your children these next four years. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to teach them each Geometry proof, or need to have a full understanding of physics. Maybe you haven’t read all the great classics and have no idea how to write poetry. But what you must be committed to is knowing your resources. Swap classes with other moms…maybe a mom can work with several teenagers in their reading and writing while you teach them biology. I learned early on to identify those that had talents that I did not have. A neighbor’s children taught my oldest two how to learn and use Latin. My children have taught others guitar and drums. I have taught many students how to write, but get lost in the periodic table. Modern technology has opened up the homeschooling world so that you can easily find resources…some for swapping, some for pay. But there are MANY talented children and adults out there who can help.

Secondly, examine your family life and determine if you can be consistent. Set up a weekly and daily schedule that gives structure and expectation to your student. You also need to build in time that allows for your review and grading of the material. And, by all means, order the teacher key for each subject your child is taking. It will help you figure out the answer, but will also let you quickly check and grade their work. Early on, I wanted to prove to myself and my children that I could figure out everything they were doing. I most certainly could figure it out, but it took precious time that I really didn’t have. Teachers in the public schools do this too…they have answer keys for this reason. You are not falling short if you use them. You are wisely using your time! For parents who are working full or part time, this is a tough one. The formatting of a schedule and regular accountability will be critical.

Investigate umbrella groups, co-ops and on-line grade reporting systems. You may need encouragement and help, and this is where umbrella and/or co-ops can be very helpful. Classes that you may have difficulty with may be offered in one of these situations. Also, look for good reporting resources. You can set up a word document, an excel spreadsheet, or use free resources on line. At Christiana, we use an on-line grading system and it has been made available to us free of charge. Individuals can also set up grade reports. You can track grades over the four years of high school and it will produce a cumulative scoring for each year. In addition, there are many transcript services (free and for pay) that will help you to create high school transcripts. High schools use the same kinds of resources that are now available to homeschoolers. Again, technology has offered to the homeschooler what schools have been using for year.

I must say at this point that homeschooling is not for the faint-hearted. You must be committed to your child’s education and should not enter into this endeavor lightly. But it is only for a season and it is a very crucial season of your child’s life. In the next few weeks we will be exploring topics like:

*“I survived high school, so can my child”: What’s wrong with this statement?*Peer pressure and pressure to date*Course choice in high school and homeschool*But my children might get a scholarship in sports! How can I pass that up?*Clubs, Activities, Music, Art…I want my child to have these!*From Harvard to Community College? Will my child be penalized for being homeschooled?*My child is gifted in math and science…won’t they be behind when they get to college if we homeschool?And more!

Since 1980, homeschooling has taken off at a tremendous rate. Thousands of parents have made the choice to use this ‘last four years of formation’ to teach their children and to help them learn how to process the world around them. Join us during this time of exploration! Remember, while we definitely have a ‘bent’ toward homeschooling, we will have some interviews with parents who decided to have their children go to public schools. We will ask them to give their own pros and cons of their decisions! Stay tuned!

I was first introduced to the classical style of education by a friend who had just discovered Susan Wise Bauer’s book, The Well Trained Mind. At this point, I was piecing together a bunch of various curriculum choices for my children and they seemed a bit disjointed. I was also trying to push my ‘educationally advanced' children (well, that was my perspective!) and sometimes we were moving too quickly. When I read Bauer’s book, I felt like my ‘eyes were opened’ to a child’s brain and how it developed. I also realized that my education in the 60’s and 70’s was more classical than I had first thought and that was comforting! All the new, ‘latest and greatest’ education ideas had not really materialized. I won’t go into details about a classical education, but let me just say…it isn’t JUST reading the classics. Some people shy away from the classical education because they think it is reading all the great books and learning Latin. But, let me tell you, it is much more than that and, if done well, can open up a life of learning for any person.

I embarked on something this fall that has cemented the classical education model in my mind. At 52, and being a fairly proficient musician (on piano, woodwinds and OK on guitar), I decided to learn a new instrument. I am determined to learn the violin well enough to play in our church. And after a month of lessons I have to say that this is SO HARD! Why? Well, I am 52 and I have been thrust back into the grammar stage of learning. What is the grammar stage, you ask? Well, it is the very beginning. Even Julie Andrews sang of this when trying to teach her soon-to-be ‘step children’ to sing….”Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A,B,C, when you sing you begin with Do Re Me.” She described the Classical Education in a song in The Sound of Music. The grammar stage is the beginning, and right now I am learning all the very basic things about where the notes are on the neck of the violin. I am learning correct terminology, correct placement, how to hold the bow, how to move the bow…I could go on and on. But these are absolutely necessary in order to obtain the very best sound out of this instrument. Unfortunately, this is not a process to hurry or skip over. Success in the other stages (the Logic and Rhetoric stages) is built on this stage. I want to be a good violin player NOW, not in a year or two years…NOW! But I must be patient and practice. Unfortunately, this classical model of learning is so counter-cultural. We have fast food, speed reading, ‘learn a language in a week’ programs, and when we are sick, we want fast drugs to speed healing. We are not satisfied to allow time, practice, memorization and hard work to be a part of our lives.

Now let me return to the classroom. As children sit in the ‘grammar stage,’ it is imperative that we teach them the basic grammar of the subject. Children must understand counting, adding, subtraction, fractions, decimals, etc. before they can move into interpreting word problems. They should be reminded of these things every day and should practice, recite, memorize. But, if we see a little ‘giftedness’ in them, we want to jump ahead to the next math book. NO!!!! In languages, children must understand the alphabet and how letters blend together into various sounds. In history, they must understand the story of history from beginning to present and should hear that story multiple times, building on their understanding each time, finally learning to interpret historical events and learning how to respond. This is true for every subject, instrument or sport that we want to learn.

So, for now, I am stuck with “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star” and the G scale. I still squeak quite a bit and have to stop between every song to re-position my hands. And the kicker in all this???? My instructor is a sweet 8th grader, who has moved through all the stages of learning violin and is quite the virtuoso on this instrument. Isn’t life a beautiful thing? I am teaching this young lady history and logic and she is teaching me the violin. The grammar stage isn’t just for kids…it’s for all of us, but we can learn ANYTHING when we start there!